The Shogun's Admiral --- Graves In The Middle Of A Suburb

Located on a hilltop in the middle of Yokosuka's Ikeda-Cho residential district -- a place with a breathtaking view of the City harbor and Tokyo Bay -- are the large grave-stones of MUKAI SHOGEN and his wife...

 














Admiral MUKAI (1621-1674) was the commander of the Tokugawa Shogun's navy.  Here is a painting of what some of his ships looked like back in those days:

Of interest, Admiral MUKAI was a contemporary of the Englishman, William Adams (who is also buried in Yokosuka -- Hemi District, Anjin-Zuka), and, together they built first Japan's western-style sailing ships...

One day Ieyasu commanded Adams to construct a Western-style ship.  Although Adams had studied shipbuilding at Diggins in his young days, he had never actually built a ship.  Even so, determined to comply with Ieyasu’s request, he obtained the comprehensive assistance of the Liefde’s shipwright, Pieter Janszoon, as well as that of ship-carpenters from the Bakufu Navy, Mukai Shogen.  Together, in Ito of the Izu Peninsula, they created an 80-tonne Western-style ship.  When Ieyasu saw their success, he immediately ordered construction of an even larger ship, this time 120 tonnes. This ship ended up serving as a substitute for the Spanish Viceroy Don Rodrigo’s ship, which wrecked off Onjuku in Chiba. To repay this debt of gratitude, Spain opened up Mexico, then its own territory, for full-scale trade with Japan; and also sent Sebastian Vizcaino, its first-ever ambassador to Japan, to Uraga.

William Adams' remarkable life (i.e., going form a shipwrecked sailor to a samurai advisor to Japan's top ruler) was turned into a historical novel "Shogun" written by James Clavell, and was also made into a multi-part T.V. movie of the same name in 1980.

A real good biography of Adams can be read here.